


Rules of Nature

by The_Local_Cryptid



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Bakugou Katsuki, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo Katsuki Is A Feral Rat Baby, Bakugou Katsuki is a Decent Human, But That's What Happens When You Mix Two Completely Different Plots Together, But like seriously if you don't like gore and broken bones, Confident Midoriya Izuku, Everyone Loves Midoriya Izuku, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I'm not your mom, Izuku "Snap-Crackle-Pop" Midoriya Strikes Again, M/M, Midoriya Izuku Swears, Midoriya Izuku is a Little Shit, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, Multi, Or don't, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polygamy, Specifically Compound Fractures, Supportive Dekusquad (My Hero Academia), There's A Lot Of Pain Alright, You Should Probably Skip Some Of This
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:00:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22582165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Local_Cryptid/pseuds/The_Local_Cryptid
Summary: We all know the way the story of Izuku Midoriya goes.Big bright future of heroes and quirks.Sad little weak boy grows up with no powers.Not all men are made the same.Relentless bullying.Self-confidence is nonexistent, yadda yadda yadda.But what if there's a world where that didn't happen, and mankind was more close to their primal roots? Oh, and monsters threaten the entirety of mankind day in and day out, don't forget to make him have some friends... Screw it, while we're at it, why not make him an elf too?Just another speck in the multiverse, after all.
Relationships: Asui Tsuyu/Midoriya Izuku, Iida Tenya/Midoriya Izuku, Jirou Kyouka/Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku/Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku/Yaoyorozu Momo, dekubowl - Relationship
Comments: 31
Kudos: 63





	1. Brand New World, Same Old Bones

**Author's Note:**

> So, uhh... Hi again? I'll most likely be focusing on this fic mainly, so be ready for that. Chaos Theory is great and has all my beautiful babies and wonderful ideas, as well as limitless potential, but I'm just not motivated to write it. Thus, it's being put in time-out while I try my best to actually keep this fic coherent and not jump around so much.
> 
> Oh, big thanks to DekutheStrong for giving my work a once over. Gotta have a good first impression, right?  
> Anyway, hope you all enjoy.

Like many a good adventure, this one starts in a tavern. It was a fine place, warm and alight, alive with conversation, and brimming with personality. The smell of delectable meats and breads, and the air was heavy with the scent of mead, ale, and other assorted drinks. The people inside were as diverse as they come, hailing from all manner of countries and, in some way or another, found themselves here. However, there is something that puts this particular tavern apart from most other conventional ones.

See, if you were to look out the window, you would see, well, the  _ sea. _ This tavern was confined within the belly of a ship. Though dark and stormy outside, the occupants of the vessel cheered and drank in camaraderie, with nary a sad face in sight. An assortment of Felynes carried oversized platters that, by all rights, should not have been so balanced, especially when one sees just how much food they contain.    
  
All around the room you could see people from all walks of life. At one table, a dark skinned woman with shockingly pink hair was chatting animatedly with a muscled man with spiky red hair, along with a shockingly yellow blonde. At another table, a kind looking brunette giggles at a joke that a green haired woman made. There was a lone ravenette, with a plate of food, a mug of ale, and a very, very thick book in her hand. However, there were a few people missing.   
  
Among these people are Izuku Midoriya, a renowned hunter, at least back in the old world, and a prominent member of the Research Commission’s Fifth Fleet. There are also a few other titles he has, “Protege of Hisashi Midoriya,” “Deku,” and a few other names he’s rather not disclose from his early days. However, currently, he was groaning in his hammock. He had eaten something that wasn’t entirely fresh per se, and now he’s paying for it. His palico, Inko (who he named after his mother for her very mothering attitude towards him) was curled up on him to try and provide some level of comfort. It didn’t help much that the sea was getting rougher due to the storm. He heard a set of footsteps coming down the hall to his room, and he looked to the door as someone knocked.    
  
“Come in…” He groaned out weakly.   
  
The door opened to reveal Tenya Iida, one of his closest friends. Once you get past his… uptight personality, he’s actually just a really upstanding guy. “Midoriya-San! Captain Selkie has asked me to tell you that we should be approaching the mainland within a few hours!” He said, flinging his arms everywhere. Izuku nodded.    
  
“Okay, uh… Tell Ochako and Tsu I’ll be down in a minute.” He said, lifting Inko up and shambling out of bed, taking a drink of water from his canteen to swallow the bile rising in his throat. Iida left with a louder than strictly necessary “Understood! I shall inform the others!” before marching down the hall.    
  
“Well, he’s certainly in high spirits. Inko, uh, go with him for now. I’ll be down in a bit.” Inko nodded, trotting off down the door. “Get your legs under mew, Izuku. I will not have my charge looking like dung when he meets the com-mew-nder.” She threatened, pulling out her palico weapon for emphasis and brandishing it at him.   
  
“Y-Yes ma’am…” He stuttered. She really does have the same aura of his mother.    
  
So, with that finished, Izuku pulled on his leather armor (The commission would not let him take his old armor and weapons, saying something about the smithy over there not having the materials to repair it if it got damaged, which he understood. Still didn’t stop him from being a bit miffed about it though.) and got some of his fancy new commission tech. They really went all out for the new world, eh? He double checked his gear for, possibly, the 10th time that day.    
Hunter Pouch? Check.   
Carving Knife? Check.   
Scoutflies and their cage? Check.   
Slinger? Check.   
And, not exactly required, but the pendant his father gave him? Check.   
  
He brought his hand up to touch the necklace, his calloused, scarred hands brushing against the cool, engraved metal. Hisashi Midoriya was a member of the first fleet, fifty years ago, and is quite old now, yet he and his mother both hardly look a day over 30. Why? They’re wyverians, and due to that, Izuku was a wyverian. Izuku was the second Wyverian to join the research commission as a hunter. But, back to the pendant, it had engravings depicting a story, of a boy and 5 dragons. And, more importantly, of the Sapphire Star. It was no bigger than the palm of his hand, but the pendant told the whole story, not in words, but through the meaning of pictures. He sighed. “Time to make you proud, Dad.” He mumbled to himself, before stepping out.    
  
He opened the door to walk into the mess hall, and everyone looked up, the room going quiet for a few seconds, before slowly resuming. He sighed as he sat down, nursing a mug of mead. “I am never gonna get used to that. I hope it doesn’t keep up…” He bemoaned, as Inko put a reassuring palm on his thigh and his three friends doing similar acts of comfort. “It just means they respect you, Izuku.” Tsuyu said bluntly. Tenya and Ochako nodded in agreement. “Thanks, guys.”   
  
Another hour passed as he slowly shook of the feeling of acid in his throat and a pit in his stomach, but good friends can usually work that kind of magic. He realized he was kind of being a bit rude by just zoning out, so he focused back on the conversation.    
  
“-ddya think it’ll be like? Zorah Magdaros, I mean.” He caught the tail end of Ochako’s question. Tenya hummed, putting his chin in his hand. “A beast with a mountain of fire upon it’s back… From both legend and records, I would concur that Zorah Magdaros is large, possibly as large as an actual volcano. And with that kind of size comes and immense amount of power on it’s own just to support it, there’s no way to tell if it has even greater strength.”   
  
“Well, that’s why we’re here though, isn’t it? To research it? Not to mention the whole ‘Elder Crossing’ that’s driving it out here in the first place.” Ochako questioned.   
  
Izuku figured now would be a time to show he is actually listening and very much so on this plane of existence. “It’s odd. Why would an event that happened every century suddenly start happening every decade?”    
  
He was quickly approaching a huge mutter storm, and in response Tsu booped him lightly on the side of the head, derailing his train of thought. He looked up. “What was that for?”    
  
“You were muttering again and I decided to spare your dignity.” Tsu bluntly stated.    
  
“Ah, well, thanks I guess.”   
  
Before anything else could happen, Izuku picked up a change in almost all his wyverian senses. He stood up quickly, knocking his cheap stool over, and went to a part window. Everyone looked, and an intimidating ash blonde walked up to him, leaning right on his back as Izuku leaned forward, straining to hear. “The water’s picking up more than usual. That’s gotta mean we’re approaching more shallow water. And that’s gotta mean landfall…” He muttered, the blonde leaning in to hear it. “Kacchan, you’re the loudest, get everyone ready.” He told the blonde, and Bakugo huffed. “You sure, Knife-Ears?” He asked, chuckling at the scalding look Izuku sent his way.    
  
“Yeah yeah, whatever Deku.” He dismissed, flicking him in the forehead before walking to the center of the room, pushing aside a muscled redhead and stomping his way up onto a clearspot on the table. “HEY EXTRAS, GET READY, WE’RE ABOUT TO HIT THE NEW WORLD RUNNING, NO LESS! YOU ALL GOT THAT!?” He screamed like the feral rat baby he is. Izuku sighed. “You can’t just call everyone extras, you need to quit that habit.” he pleaded, to which Katsuki just smirked down at him. “Nah, don’t feel like it. I’m heading topside, get ready to be left in the dust, Deku.” He said, stepping down and shoulder checked him on the way out, which Izuku used to spin himself around and deliver a solid smack into the back of his head, effectively ruining any ‘badass cool guy image’ he had just built then and there. He turned and snarled while Izuku just smirked and then went to the stairs to head up to the deck as well, a fuming Katsuki coming quickly up behind him.   
  
Both of their respective hunting squads preferring to stay below deck and finish getting ready. The two friends/rivals stood on the deck, unable to tell if the water pelting them was rain, sea spray or both. “Oi, Deku, how much longer does your useless wyverian bullshit senses say it’ll take before we reach the base?” He growled, still angered about the smack. Izuku hummed. “Well… It really depends on what part of the beach we’re approaching from but-”   
“Short version, fuckface.”   
Izuku smirked. “About 30 more minutes, give or take. Go relay that to Captain Selkie.”   
“Fuck you.” Katsuki growled, but complied nonetheless.    
  
Izuku sighed. “He never seems to get over his anger, does he Inko?” He asked his Felyne equivalent of a parent. She nodded. “I don’t want it to cost him in the field…” She stated solemnly. He nodded in agreement.   
  
Then, there was another shift. Izuku’s long ears twitched, and he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by a feeling of pure power in the air and the illusory scent of brimstone and fire stung his nostrils. He froze. Only one kind of monster could cause this kind of shift and give off this kind of aura.    
  
**_“EVERYONE, BRACE FOR IMPACT!”_ ** He bellowed louder than even he thought possible. It was the kind of order filled with such urgency that everyone instinctively complied, in the mindset of “Do first, ask later”.   
  
Below deck, everyone huddled down and grabbed a hold of something, and Izuku threw himself to the side of the ship, wrapping his arms around the railing. Inko tried, but her paw got snagged in a rope. And, at the time of the order, there was a woman, with deep purple hair, who grabbed onto the mast, her mind racing with pure panic.   
  
It was then that a deep, rumbling sound shook the ship from  _ below _ , and the air around them began to be filled with steam, the cold ocean suddenly near boiling.    
  
Then, all hell broke loose. The waves battered them, but that was child’s play compared to the following impact. Wood and bone met living stone, and you can take a wild guess as to which won.    
  


Then, as if this wasn’t bad enough, Izuku felt the floor beneath his feet begin to turn into something more akin to a wall. His boots slipped off the slick, wet deckboards, and his bear hug on the railing was the only thing keeping him from plummeting into the dark, churning waves below. He looked over to see Inko, now free of her thread binds, holding on by the claws to a jutted out board. She looked over, paw outstretched. “IZUKU!!” SHe shouted, before he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a box, followed by other such cargo left topside, and it was headed straight for his palico. He tried to warn her, but by the time the words had clawed their way up his throat, she had been nailed, losing her grip of the board with a pained yelp and falling into the dark sea along with the damned box that did her in, and other pieces of cargo.    
  
“INKO!!!!” He screamed, the fear threatening to crush his throat with how tight it made it causing the words to feel like he had just ate Serregios scales. His hand was held out to where she had fallen, and he realized he was beginning to lose his grip. It was then that he heard another panicked yell, and looked over to see the woman clinging to it beginning to lose her hold on the mast as well.    
  
Before he could even attempt to figure out how to help the situation in the slightest, he felt the ship turn even more, and he suddenly felt a very, very painful pressure in his shoulder, and it was beginning to get worse the longer he remained, to the point where he couldn’t even reach u his other arm to try and fix his position until-   
  
**_Crrraack!_ **   
  
He felt his arm light up in pain, and saw the way his one, rather painful, lifeline loose form and like a snake, wormed out from the armlock he had on the railing, and he gasped and cried out in pain form the sensation of fragments of bone in his arm suddenly becoming much more segmented and moving in ways he never, ever in a thousand years wanted to experience again. So great was the pain that he couldn’t even register he was falling until he was face to face with an obsidian landing pad.   
  


* * *

  
  
Kyouka can, with absolute sincerity, say this is quite possibly the worst way her day could have gone. She was just a handler, for fucks sake! So when she got the file of who she was supposed to be partnered up with, and saw that it was this  _ unfairly hot WYVERIAN HUNTER _ , she had to do a quadruple take. So imagine her surprise when she sees him nerding out with his squad, talking down some tough guy, and then warn everyone of the impending danger right before it hit. And when she sees her new partner suddenly have multiple compound fractures and then land right on that arm after a ~75 foot drop, could you really blame her for losing her grip? Or losing her lunch for that matter?    
  
She’s seen many things, and knows how resilient hunters are because they use armorskin all the time. It was one of the lessons she was taught as a handler, to make sure her hunter gets their daily armorskin so they don’t get gored by a diablos or whatever, and to make sure they eat plenty because of the side effects of armorskin. But that’s when she remembered. There was a cargo mix-up and the majority of the armorskin supply was left behind, and in their place was a bunch of guild-issue winter uniforms.    
  
She herself did not have a pleasant landing, but when she looked to her partner, she screamed.   
  
“Midoriya!”    
  
Laying down there, was possibly the most gruesome sight she ever saw. The unconscious (She hoped) body of Midoriya, his arm bent in a multitude of directions. His light brown and white leather armor was torn and stained red, and she *dearly* hoped that those white bits among the brown and red were just… Unstained leather. Yeah. Definitely. Her mind was running in the most confused and panicked circles as she tried to dig up ANY memories of training for something even remotely close to this situation. What did Hakagure say in that note she passed her in class?

Oh yeah, it was something like…

_ Whatever the problem appears to be, apply direct pressure. Everyone agrees on this. _ _  
_ _  
_ _ Also remember the “ABC” rule of First-Aid. _ _  
_ _ A _ _  
_ _ Bone _ _  
_ _ Coming through the skin is very bad _

Wait, neither of those help in this situation! She held her head as she sank to her knees in front of Midoriya. “Shit shit shit..! Think, Jirou, THINK!” She commanded herself. It was then that a pebble hit her head and she heard a great deal of scraping and wood groaning. She looked up to see that their ship was now upright, but also heading towards them like the world’s heaviest, dulles guillotine. And it was right above them.

Without thinking, she picked up Izuku (how, she would later find out, was due to hysterical strength, as Izuku was tall and to her, weighed a ton) and made a mad dash from out from under the ship’s collision course. She tripped over a line of cooled magma waiting in the dark like a tripwire, and on pure instinct and adrenaline the used the last of her footing to launch into a forward jump, turning in mid air so the wounded man would land on her instead of the other way around. The ship smashed into the rocky ground, with a horrible grinding sound, and violently grated it’s way back into the water with what  _ appeared _ to be a nosedive, but when she looked, she saw it’s singular remaining unbroken mast rise back, meaning it should be fire…   
  
Right?

She sat up, moving Midoriya’s body off of her some more so she has the ability to breathe, his bruised head laying in her lap. But she couldn’t think about that right now, she was hyperventilating and trying to reign in control of her higher brain functions. She heard a pained hiss and a groan, and looked down to see Midoriya’s face contorted in pain, and he opened his eyes, and his cloudy yet awestruck eyes widened when he saw her face.    
  
“An angel…” She heard him mutter, before she shut down. On the plus side, she was no longer hyperventilating, those two words and the way he looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world having stopped her mortal panic dead in its tracks. But now her social panic began to writhe it’s way from the depths of hell.    
  
Her face began to heat up  _ fast _ and she needed to get away and calm down but  _ oh gOD HIS HEAD IS IN HER LAP AND HE’S STILL LOOKING AT HER LIKE THAT SHE’S NOT MENTALLY PREPARED ENOUGH FOR THIS- _

The voice of Izuku broke through all her mental blocks again, except it wasn’t soft and full of awe, but pained and panicked. “AGH! WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT HAPPENED!?”    
  
She looked down and found that in her own panic she had defaulted to her base instincts and decided to try and run from her problems, as per usual, and had shoved him off of her in the process. She felt all of the blood flushing her face leave as she just realized what she had done.    
  
“Oh my god, M-idoriya, I-I didn’t meant to i was just-” Her words died in her throat when she say Izuku, possibly the most injured man she’d ever seen in her life, stagger to his feet, take a look at his multiple compound fractures, and took in a deep, shuddering breath. “H-Hey, If you’re queasy… You might wanna look away…” He wheezed. His eyes, no longer cloudy and confused, were showing a whole emerald sea of pain and determination. He reached behind him, grabbed his knife and it’s sheath, and put the sheath in his mouth, then unsheathed the knife. With his good arm, he stabbed the knife into a crevice on the wall. She watched in confusion before she saw his jaw clamp down on the leather sheath  _ hard _ and his hand went to his broken arm.

She damn near retched then and there as it hit her what he was about to do, and for the second time in 10 minutes, she threw up off the side of Zorah Magdaros, the sounds of her own dry heaving drowning out the sound of setting bones back in place and the sound of his skin and muscle squishing. It did not however, effectively block out his screams of Agony, even through his makeshift gag, and it made her start back up again once she heard the sounds of his pain. After a few minutes, she heard his cries of pain and whimpers die down, and saw that he had  _ reset a goddamn compound fracture and used his knife as a splint. _ She saw the amount of bandages both directly on his arm to stop the bleeding and then bandages on his arm and the knife to keep it in place. She could smell burning flesh, and the spot where his knife was stuck in is now leaking smoke.    
  
She stormed over, and damn near hit him. “Did you just reset a compound fracture and cauterize the wound!? You absolute fucking moron! You aren’t supposed to DO that!” she ranted. He winced. “It… It was either this, or bleed out.” He hissed through his teeth. His leather sleeve was now cut off, and was used as a tourniquet. “Listen, we need to get off Zorah. But to do that, well…” He cut himself off as he gestured for her to look with his good hand. Sheer cliffs of volcanic elder dragon shell to climb and among the flashes of lightning, she could see some kind of wingdrake species flying around up top.   
  
Midoriya limped forward towards one of the walls, and Jirou had to stop and think. How much pain is he in right now? How is he even standing, much less about to start climbing!?    
  
Izuku, like any good egg runner, could climb without using one of his arms, and there was no egg to worry about dropping or weighing him down, he just had to keep his arm from moving too much. To Jirou’s amazement, he began to scale the wall. Flabbergasted, she raced to catch up to him. “What in God’s name are you doing!” She hissed at him. He didn’t even look back to her, he didn’t need to. His voice carried all the conviction he felt. “I refuse to die before I get some goddamn answers and at least a glimpse of the New World.” He said, his climbing getting even faster, forcing her to keep pace.    
  
“Why are we even heading to the top anyway?” She yelled to him over the din of a poorly timed crack of thunder. Izuku looked at her, then jerked his head to the top, where the wingdrakes flew.    
  
“We’re gonna hitch a ride.” He said as if that made her feel any better.    
  
After a few minutes, Izuku had managed to either achieve the correct state of mind to block out all his worldly problems or he’s somehow trucking through severe blood loss and has 45% pure adrenaline in his veins to make up for it.    
  
The two reached the top, with Izuku rolling his right shoulder back, checking that the slinger grapple works. “Thank God I’m right handed, eh?’ He joked as he looked around. None of these wingdrakes would give him a good enough shot to achieve liftoff. They’re all just hovering and squawking, he needs one mid-flight, with more room to operate. He looked, and saw the head of Zorah Magdaros. “Okay, uh, Jirou, right?” He asked. “I need you to follow me. I know handler slinger’s don’t have the grapple, but I only have one arm, so when I jump, I need you to grab my leg.”    
  
“What!?”   
  
“No time to explain any more, here comes an opportunity!” He said, taking off. Jirou sputtered but sprinted after him. He leaped off the ledge onto the smoother scales of Zorah Magdaros’s head, and transitioned into a slide, coming up to the magmacore and using it like a ramp, Jirou close behind, She grabbed his leg and he wrapped his legs around her as best he could. “Hold on!” He soid, twisting in the air and taking aim at the wingdrake flying just overhead.

He focused, the world slowing to a crawl, yet his mind racing faster than ever. If he was off even by a fraction of a second, there’s a high chance both of them would die. It had. To be. Perfect.   
  
He took in a breath, stilled his heartbeat, and breathed out. Always shoot on an empty lung.   
  
The world resumed it’s normal pace as he fired his slinger grapple, the small hook finding purchase around the wingdrake’s legs, tangling them like a bola, and suddenly they went from finding out if water really is as hard as concrete at terminal velocity to being yanked the other way. Jirou almost slipped out from between his legs, and both parties tightened their grips. The jolt made Izuku wince in pain, but the splint kept him mostly alright, as alright as one can be in his situation, and they looked to see Zorah Magdaros let out a mighty roar that made his Wyverian ears ring with pain, before sinking into the sea. With no Zorah to land on, they had a one way ticket to the mainland.    
  
Turns out, they were right there. With the disappearance of Zorah, the storm surrounding it, manifested form an Elder Dragon’s pure power, went away as well revealing one of the most stuffing sights either of them had ever seen.

For as far as they could see, untouched wildlands brimming with new species of fauna and flora, with the forest they were approaching stretching for miles, with a Gargantuanly proportioned tree dead center, it’s roots most likely spreading for miles around it just to support it, and there’s no telling how deep the root system would run.   
  
On the ground in a clearing they saw a herd of aptonoth, grazing peacefully. They were awestruck, mesmerized by the beauty of it all. 

Then, they dropped in altitude sharply, and they both looked up to see their fine wingdrake friend no longer doing so hot, it’s wing flaps becoming increasingly more panicked and wild as it thrashed midair. They dropped again, and Izuku tried to calm it down, Wyverians being more connected to nature and thus being able, to a degree, communicate with monsters. 

“Hey, hey, calm down! You’re gonna drop us at this raAAATE!”   
  
Right at that last word, the grapple hook got jarred loose and unraveled, causing them to fall. Not wanting to snap Jirou’s neck, he released her, and curled in on himself, bracing for impact and hoping his cast would hold.    
  
Both of their worlds were enveloped in green as they had a very up close and personal meeting with the foliage.


	2. Space Jam but with Australian Knives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This just in, Mirio fucking slam dunks on Great Jagras, mass casualties have been reported. Stay tuned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to Majigah and Bone Jackson, world-famous pugilist from Epsi's discord for beta reading!

Izuku awoke, once more, in severe pain, face down in the dirt.    
  
“Agh-  _ FUCK! This had better not become some weird trend, bec-AH FUCKING HELL!” _ _   
_ He looked at his arm. He could feel that some of his wounds had been re-opened, but his bones had stayed in… relatively the same spot. But he had a feeling that the cast wasn’t gonna do the job for too long. It was a miracle it survived the fall in the first place.   
  
He gingerly got up, making sure to not move his arm too much, as he could already see red starting to seep through the layers of bandages. He staggered his way out of the underbrush, his digitigrade legs feeling sore but that was probably from crashing in a heap and laying there for god knows how long.    
  
He came to a clearing and saw the sun was high above his head. It was morning when he crashed. “Greeaaaat.” He grumbled. Izuku looked around, finding what was probably an Aptonoth trail, the large beasts having flattened the foliage to make a natural pathway. He followed it, and found himself pleasantly surprised.

Yet another clearing, not man made, yet it had a CAMP. That meant supplies, maps, and that the base was closer than he thought. It meant salvation was so tauntingly close that it was already helping him keep going.   
  
He shoved his way into the tent, finding a decently sized hunter’s cache. A few potions, a handful of rations, and a few other items that he didn’t care for at the moment. Plus, there was a fresh research journal, the old one on its last few pages. The map was as bare as they come, but it was a map. He tucked it away and searched some more, finding a pair of old, iron dual blades. Ironic, since he only has one arm, but he strapped both on his back anyway.

Better safe than sorry in the New World.

Once that was done, he stepped out into the clearing. “Jirou! Where are you!?” He called, his call echoing among the trees. Then, his ears picked up on a resounding cry, and after a minute he heard someone barreling through the underbrush. He downed a potion as he waited, sighing in bliss as it numbed the pain and jump-started his healing, and ate a ration to keep his body supplied with nutrients.    
  
Kyouka burst through the brush, looking bruised and battered, but still beautiful while she’s at it somehow. And, thankfully, no broken bones. She looked around frantically before her eyes landed on him. “Midoriya!” She yelled, and bolted towards him, embracing him in the safest yet fastest hug she could manage, carefully avoiding his arm. He chuckled, his good arm rubbing calming circles on her back.    
  
“Hey now, none of that. Look at me.” He said in a soft voice. She looked up at him, her eyes and face wet with tears. 

“Oh my god, Midoriya, I-I thought… I’ve never seen someone so hurt, and I was so worried, I thought… I thought you were gonna…” She began to sniffle. Izuku poked her in the cheek.    
  
“Now don’t you finish that sentence. It takes more than that to do me in, so don’t you worry a hair on your pretty little head.” Jirou began blushing hard at that.

Now, he wasn’t normally this flirtatious, but he’d lost a lot of blood and she was cute, and kinda saved him from being crushed, so he thought he was allowed this much. At least, for now.   
  
He pushed his finger into her cheek, making her do a lopsided smile while blinding her with one of his own, however pained it may have been. He hid it all behind that damned smile.    
  
“Now, smile! We’re alive! And I found a camp and got some potions in me, so I’m feeling better. Oh, check it, I got these maps.” He cheered, pulling out the notebook and opening it with one hand. “So, if what I can see is correct, we’re about here.” He said, setting the book on a log and pointing to the camp area.    
  
“We need to head… There, that looks like a gate of some kind was drawn there, that’s our best bet. We’re in no condition to fight, so let’s avoid open areas. We can cut through the jungle here and stick to the shadows.” He suggested, pointing to a denser part of the jungle with small passages, making most large monsters (Hopefully) unable to go there.    
  
Jirou nodded, still trying to dispel the blush from her face. “Okay, I see the sense in that. You ready to go?” She asked, looking out to the open field full of aptonoth outside waiting for them. Izuku hummed the affirmative and began walking, followed closely by Jirou. 

In the field, Izuku walked up to the large, dinosaur-like herbivores, famous for being skittish but otherwise completely harmless. He ran his hand along its soft hide, and he heard it give off a pleased rumble.   
  
Kyouka walked up to the Aptonoth as well, petting it on the neck, and chuckled. “These ones are every bit as docile as the ones back home…” She mused. He chuckled. 

They walked further, and Izuku saw his scoutflies come out of their cage, swarming around some kind of flower. It was tall, and had white petals with a gold edge, forming a lopsided chalice shape. His nose picked up the scent of… Something like Aloe, but stronger. He also smelled a hint of what’s best described as a Mega-Potion. Herbal, and sweet.   
  
Jirou looked at it, poking the flower but going back when a small puff of liquid was sprayed into the air. “Why are your scoutflies swarming around it?” She asked. Izuku, in response, unsheathed one of the blades on his back and stabbed it, letting the resulting spray mostly douse his arm. The bandages slowed the process but readily absorbed the liquid, continuing to heal and numb the pain.    
  
“It smelled like a mega potion.” He announced, pulling her into the cloud before it disappeared and he heard her sigh, remembering her bruises. “Well damn, and here I thought it was poisonous.” she sighed.   
  
“Come on, let’s go. We have to wade through this little creek here.” He said, going about shin deep in the water. It was actually very clear, and yet here he was, fucking it up by letting the soot, ash, and blood coating his boots wash off into it.    
  
They continued until they were met by a wall of dense foliage and thick vines or roots blocking their path. Izuku saw their path continuing ahead through the gaps. He flipped his sword into the air, grabbing it by the flat, back edge of the blade and handed it to Jirou, handle first. “Well, Jirou. Seems like we’ve got some bushwhackin’ ‘head of us.” He drawled in an unnecessarily heavy accent, making her snort.    
  


And so they went, both cutting their way through the foliage with the blades, until finally their floral foe was defeated, torn apart and lying at their feet. He caught a whiff of something, like stomach acid and the faint smell of rotting meat. But, it was a jungle full of monsters, what did he expect?

He looked between his map and the area they were in. Turns out, this was some kind of central area, because it had about a million different ways to go from here. He found the path he needed to go through blocked by more vines, but he stopped, holding out his hand to signal Jirou to stop as well. His ears twitched as he listened closely, and…    
  
“There it is.” He muttered. Fifty feet up, he could hear the sounds of at least 5 small monsters scuttling around in the trees above them. They didn’t sound interested or afraid, they sounded aggressive, and he could gather that they were making a plan.    
  
“Jirou, we gotta go. Now.” He hissed through his teeth, reaching up to his single blade. Jirou nodded and began to try and hack and slash her way through the vines quickly. 

It wasn’t fast enough. From the trees there was a howl that just sounded like an airy growl with a snarl mixed in, and Izuku heard them coming closer. He looked to see five small fanged wyverns crawling down the trees or leaping down onto branches around them with surprising mobility, one landing in front of him, stalking forward slowly, head down low and fangs bared, while it’s friends circled around from above, ready to jump in. A distraction, then.  _ “Don’t come any closer if you and your pack value their lives.”  _ he growled out in wyverian, pointing his blade forward threateningly. This seemed to give the large, iguana-like monster in front of him pause, it’s head shooting up and looking at him in surprise, obviously not having been expecting him to communicate. It sniffed the air, and he saw its eyes lock onto his wounded arm.    
  
_ “Blood.” _ he heard it snarl, before continuing its advance.    
  
“Jirou? You almost done?” He hissed towards the girl, not daring to look away from the monster. He was vulnerable right now, no armorskin keeping him safe, and those fangs looked vicious for a small monster.    
  
“Y-yeah, I’m trying.” She whispered, and he could hear the sounds of vines being whacked increasing in pace.   
  
“Keep trying. I’ll keep you safe.” He declared, standing up faller and widening his stance to appear larger, trying to intimidate the Jagras into hesitating again. It did slow, but continued regardless. 

15 feet.

10 feet.

5 feet away.    
  
It tensed, and he readied to slash, before it rose on its hind legs, nearing his height. It threw its head back and released another snarling roar.   
  
_ “Get him!” _ the monster shouted, and he heard movement from his right. He turned quickly, giving the ambusher a nasty smack in the nose with the flat of his blade before he kept the momentum of his swing going and brought the blade down on it’s back, leaning far out to do so and feigning unbalance, leg in the air. Another jagras saw this “opportunity” and leapt in to bite, but he curled up his leg, put his good hand on the ground to brace himself, and sent out a devastating kick that looked like rabbit kung-fu but was effective at ruining the jagras’ day. It let out a pained yelp as his foot met its soft throat, causing it to fly back and skid along the ground, before slowly getting up.    
  
“Izuku! Let’s go!” She said, having cleared the branches, and Izuku got up, bolting through and keeping it that way. The jagras decided they were too much trouble and gave up the chase, scurrying back into the trees. The hunter/handler duo kept going, jumping off a small cliff, and wandering towards the edge of the forest, where a large downward slope led to a rocky beach on one side, with an uphill pathway leading into dense jungle. 

Izuku groaned in frustration at the fallen tree in their way up ahead, however. “Oh come on! That’s our way in!”    
  
The scoutflies had gone off from his belt, and while Izuku was busy muttering up a plan, Kyouka followed them. They swarmed on a patch of dirt, scraped up and looking like it had something dragged across it, lighting up the tracks in green. 

Then, the scoutflies turned red and flew away.

Out from the jungle foliage came another Jagras, this one much, MUCH larger than the others, with large, leathery ‘dreadlocks’. It rammed Kyouka, which caused Izuku to snap to attention as it pinned her down.   
  
“Jirou! Hold on, I’m coming!” He shouted, pulling out his blade and charging. He didn’t have to, though, as he saw a greatsword-wielding hunter jump from the ledge, his blonde hair shining in the midday sun.    
  
**“POWEEEERRRR!!”** the hunter bellowed, slamming his weapon onto the jagras and transitioning into a mount, grabbing fistfuls of jagras dreads. It reared back, unpinning Kyouka, and thrashed about, trying to buck him off, but the hunter held firm. It eventually tried to slam him into the fallen tree, but he jumped off at the last second, letting the big lizard be a living battering ram to open their gates to freedom. “Come on kiddos! Base is this way!” He called, waving them over while the Jagras reeled in pain. Kyouka quickly got up and ran with him, but before Izuku could close the distance, the Jagras reeled back, and it sounded ANGRY, hot steam coming from it’s nostrils as it huffed like a bull and charged after them.

The scene at the top of the hill was… Interesting, to say the least. The Jagras, still fuming, let off its ugly, snarling roar but it didn’t seem to want to approach the gate. He was just going to run past it, but he heard rapidly incoming heavy footsteps, and then a giant, pink and black drag queen of a tyrannosaurus leapt out from the trees and found that the Jagras’s neck fit quite nicely in it’s mouth. Said Jagras was thrashing, trying in vain to escape, but providing Izuku a good enough distraction.

And yet, the Brute wyvern wasn’t done just yet. It shifted its feet and spun around, lifting the whole Jagras into the air and doing the land equivalent of a crocodile death-roll, while almost stepping on our poor hunter. Its feet began shifting wildly to accomodate for the balance, cutting off Izuku many times as he tried to dash through, but he broke into a sprint the second he had an opening, and the blonde shouted for him to jump.

Izuku tensed his legs and sent himself into a flying leap that a sugar glider would be proud of, turning in mid air to avoid crushing his arm once more, and landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him. The second he got past that gate, a peppy looking huntress with vivid blue hair cut the rope holding it up, causing it to come crashing down just as the brute’s tail was about to hit a textbook homerun with our favorite wyverian. 

A few minutes passed and the sounds of struggle moved further and further away into the jungle. During this time, a few things happened. 

The blue haired girl and a new guy with black hair took him to the ER. He got his wounds properly treated, and thanks to an old, wizened wyverian healer and her magic, he was thoroughly tired but fully operational, minus some cosmetic damage. Shuzenji, or Recovery Girl, said she couldn’t correct his scar tissue, meaning one of his arms would look like a modern art piece made by a four year old, but to be honest, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Just like all his other scars, he treated them like trophies.   
  
After being waved out of the infirmary, he met up with Jirou, who instantly got up from her seat to check him over. “How are you feeling?” 

“Well, Recovery Girl whacked me about 15 times with her cane for being so dumb as to reset a compound fracture, but healed me anyway. So, there’s that. But I feel fine, no pain or tightness or nothing.” He shrugged, flexing his still bare arm to prove a point.    
  
The blonde came over to greet him. “Hey! You fivers know how to make quite the entrance, especially you two!” he teased. “Well if I’m being honest, we were background characters, Zorah’s entrance was… Explosive.” He joked with a smirk. The blonde took a second to register and burst out laughing, followed by his two friends. “Oh, man, the commander’s gonna love you. I’m Mirio Togata! And these are my two friends, Hado Nejire,” the blue haired woman bounced up and down and waved, “and this is Tamaki Amajiki,” The black haired boy looked up to him and gave Izuku the smallest nod of his head in greeting. 

Izuku pulled out his hunter card. “I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

  
Jirou came up next to him with a lazy wave. “Kyouka Jirou.” she said simply.

The three older hunters looked at Izuku, then his card, then back to Izuku. He sighed, putting up his now healed hand. “Yes, I’m a wyverian, and yes, I’m a hunter.”

Nejire started to hum excitedly as she began to physically  _ vibrate _ in place, before she started letting out an “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” sound that, combined with her body language, gave him the same feeling of a Barroth’s whistle before it charges. 

Evidently, he was right, as she sprung onto him, gripping his clothes and getting up in his face asking all kinds of questions before moving onto the next three all within the same breath. 

_ ‘Is this how I sound when I mutter?’  _ He thought.   
  
Mirio walked up and put a firm hand on her head, making her scrunch up like a turtle as she gave a little pout. “Down, Hado. You need to let them answer our question.”

  
“But I wanna knoooooowwww!” She pouted.   
  
Mirio hummed. “Tough.” He then turned to Tamaki. “Take her with you and relay that we found the two missing fivers to Sir. I’m gonna show the newbies around.”

The black haired boy nodded, grabbing Nejire by the armor and dragging her off somewhere. Mirio gave them a bright smile. “Follow me! You guys gotta know this place like the back of your hand!”

They both nodded, and followed their tall blonde comrade. He gestured to the bone gate passageway. “Pretty cool, right? Like nature meant for us to build Yuuei right here.”

It certainly did evoke that feeling. 

They came to a drawbridge and crossed it, and as Izuku looked out, he could see that almost all of Yuuei was made up…

Of salvaged ships.

There were cargo nets and boards placed over them to act as flooring right past the gate, and beyond that was an open-air market of sorts, with an overturned ship held above to provide shade and protection from the elements. He pointed to it. 

“Togata?”   
“Yes?”   
“Is that safe?”

He looked at the ship quizzically, then looked back to Izuku, blinking owlishly. “I’m… Not sure I follow, Midoriya.”

The greenete sighed. “Forget it, lead us through.” Mirio looked at him one last time before the three continued on their merry way. They went under that same ship. He gestured to the various items and materials on display. “This here’s our Tradeyard. The name kinda says it all, so I’m not going to explain what goes on down here too much. However, a lot of our other businesses are conducted down here as well. Botanical research, Ecology research,” He pointed across the yard to a cluttered library right next to a nice looking garden. “And of course we have the Resource center. Their official name is a huge mouthful, so everyone just calls them the head Honchos. They keep this place running, and they’ve always got a job for you to do if you’re feeling bored.” He said, pointing to a group of three people.

One of them was a tall human woman with deep blue hair so dark it was almost black, tied into a ponytail. She wore red angular glasses and her outfit was both practical and stylish, with multiple pouches, belts and straps holding all kinds of papers and documents while the leggings and form-fitting leather under armor most commission members have were tinted a deep, royal purple. She carried a riding crop, for some ungodly reason, and when she saw the new fivers she licked her lips. The next was, oodly enough, a short wyverian, not yet to the stage of being old and tiny, just a really short wyverian wearing some kind of bright yellow contraption on his head, fiddling with a series of levers and cranks. The last of the three was a refined, calm looking wyverian, sitting in a throne of books while writing down something in yet another. He was broad shouldered and tall, with skin that was so pale he was almost grey and jet black hair styled is a simple but neat way.

“You’ll meet everyone you need to soon enough, there’s a meeting gonna happen anyway, and they called you and Jirou to go.”

Both of them nodded, and they continued their way up the cliff face via a huge staircase with bone and rope handrail. Along the way they learned about their superior. 

He was a native of the New World.

He was adopted by the commander.

And he and his two friends run most of the field operations.   
  
Learning time was over once they were shown the smithy, and then they went to the canteen.

It was there that Izuku finally felt at ease.

There, looking around worriedly, was Inko, her big green eyes wandering around all the hunters and palicoes, probably trying to look for him. He called out. “Inko!” The reaction was immediate. Inko snapped her head in his direction and broke into a felyne sprint, weaving between palicoes and hunters as Izuku dropped onto his knee to grab her when she jumped into his arms.

There were many tears shed on both sides, and some scolding on Inko’s as she told Izuku how idiotic it was to try and fix his mangled arm, but gave up after he seemed suitably admonished.

  
After a nice meal, they walked back down towards the tradeyard, and Mirio went to an integrated ship, going below deck where there were some flaps. “Come on, this will be your guys’ room. Go ahead and grab your equipment and get ready, they’ll be calling a meeting soon.”    
  
“Thanks, Mirio.”   
“No problem, anytime for my friends!” the enthusiastic blonde replied with a smile before stepping out. Izuku instantly sagged in on himself and trudged to the bed, flopping on it hard. He was out before his body even hit the mattress.

Kyouka watched all of this happen with a frown. Was he just hiding his tiredness or did the sight of a bed make him remember how much he went through? She heard footsteps coming up from behind. “Oh, darn, he’s doing it again… Tenya, make sure Izuku gets some rest, but get him up and ready in time for the meeting he’s gotta go to.” said a soft, femminine voice.

“Aye!” came a much louder, hard male’s voice, both in the same room as her.    
  
Kyouka turned to see that the entire squad that Deku was in were apparently roomates. She saw the brown haired girl, the unnecessarily militaristic blue haired guy, the green haired girl, and a few others she didn’t see down below deck, but the way they were interacting made it obvious. There was a guy who looked even more tired than Izuku, with bags under his eyes so dark they were almost bruises, who was playing some kind of card game with the green haired girl and a two-toned peppermint with a nasty looking burn scar , all of them with natural poker faces. 

The community cards were laid out, bets were placed (With supplies and favors, since they had no zenny yet), and this went around a few times, all of them waging psychological warfare on each other, until the green haired girl folded. The two boys drilled holes in each other with their competitive glares, before the final bets were placed and the fifth card was laid out. 

An ace, a pair of nines, a king, and a 3. The purple one threw his hand out proudly, suddenly breaking from calm and silent to manic glee and noise.

“HAH! Full house! Beat that, Shouto!”   
The peppermint, now known as Shouto, calmly laid out his hand in front of him.   
“Four of a kind beats a full house, Shinsou.” Shouto told the boy who mere moments ago was full of energy, but was now stock still in the same pose.

The entire room was silent, with even Tenya looking up to see what had caused the Anti-commotion. 

“Shouto.”

“Yes?”   
“How the FUCK are you always this damn GOOD when it comes to CARDS?!” Shinsou screamed in rage. Ochako chucked a pillow at him, pointing at the sleeping form of Izuku. Shouto, however, seemed unphased. “I’m just lucky.” Shinsou got up, kicking the floor. “‘Lucky’ my ass, you’ve gotta be countin’ cards…” He huffed, walking to the other side of the room, taking the pillow with him. 

Jirou decided to use this time to announce her presence.

“Uh… Hey?” She said, standing nervously once all the eyes in the room landed on her. Ochako spoke up first. “Oh! You’re the new girl in the group! Welcome, come on, sit down.” she said, pulling up a chair to a small table. Jirou walked over, composing herself a bit more. “I’m Kyouka Jirou. I think I caught some of your names?’ She questioned, looking over at the two hunters who were playing poker. Shouto nodded. “Just Shouto works for me.” He said, not giving a last name. Or was he not giving his first name? She couldn’t tell. Shinsou turned towards her from his pillow. “Shinsou Hitoshi, nice to meet ya.” He said before turning back around. 

She really hoped he was getting some sleep.

The brown haired girl in front of her gave her a megawatt smile almost as bright as Izuku’s. “I’m Ochako Uraraka!” It was then that the tall blue hair dude with glasses came over and bowed at a perfect 90 degree angle. “I am Tenya Iida! Pleasure to make your acquaintance!”    
  
The words were a textbook polite introduction but he shouted it out like a soldier.   
  
“Woah there Iida, uh, you can relax a bit. Uh, anyway, I’m Izuku’s handler, and I guess I’ll be living with you guys for now.” She said, looking around. She got a few agreeing nods and other such welcomes.

At some point, Izuku got up again, walked out to the tradeyard, and came back looking rejuvenated and holding a bottle containing… Something. Iida stood. “Ah, Izuku! I see you’ve awoken! Come, we must get you ready for your meeting!” the man announced, rushing over and getting Izuku cleaned up, changed into a fresh set of leather armor, with a huge ass metal hammer strapped to his back. He chugged whatever was left in the bottle and put it in his pouch to throw away later. 

“Well, Kyouka, let’s get going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What'd I say? Next day update. Stay tuned until the weekend folks!


	3. The Great Jagras Is Just A Shitty Mob Boss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's how Mafia works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I RETURN!  
> REJOICE, MY CHILDREN!

Izuku and Kyouka stood in front of a giant wooden table, side by side with all the big names in the crowd. The commander, a tall, slim man with a stern face and narrow, piercing eyes stood directly across from both of them. Mirio had informed them that his name was Mirai, but they had to call him Sir, or Commander, Chief, whichever, just keep it more formal when directed at him. In his presence, both hunter and handler both stood just that little bit straighter. He looked them both over, specifically Izuku, as if appraising him.   
  
Once he was apparently satisfied with them, he nodded. “Good to see you’re both healed and ready to get to work.” He stated. Izuku nodded. “Yes Sir, the Fifth Fleet is all present, and I know I’m ready to get my hands dirty,” Izuku declared. Sir had just the faintest hint of a smile on his face and muttered something under his breath that no one but Izuku could hear. “Just like his old man…”    
  
Then Sir straightened up to his full height, which was quite imposing, before gesturing to them. “Well, now that they’re here, the meeting can now begin. After tracking a migrating Elder Dragon across the sea, the Fifth Fleet have finally arrived in Yuuei. Give them a new welcome. They’re a fine group. Worthy comrades who will help see the Research Commission's long efforts finally rewarded,” he stated, gaining nods and words of hopeful agreement.

“Midoriya, Jirou, meet the leaders of the operations here in Yuuei. They’re the beating heart of the Commission’s efforts here, so I recommend you get to know each other well.”   
  
The others at the table took this as their cue to introduce themselves. First up was the Field Team Leaders, which were Mirio, Amajiki, and Nejire, all of whom gave them a greeting of varied enthusiasm and excitement. 

And then this is where the line of semi-familiarity was drawn. 

Next up was one of the head honchos that he saw earlier, who looked him up and down as well, but it gave off a much different vibe than when the Commander was appraising him. It was… predatory. Luckily, Izuku had spent a good chunk of his life on the receiving end of that stare from various monsters, so he stood resolute, not falling back on his old nervous habits from when he was but a wee hunter just landing on the scene.   
  
This just seemed to make the woman look even hornier, if that was possible.    
  
“Nemuri Kayama, looking forward to… getting to know you~” she purred. Izuku can, to a degree, sense the feelings of others through a mish mash of different ways that blend together to give him the most optimal read of a person. And she felt desperate.   
  
  
Next was the rest of the head honchos. There was Ken Ishiyama , who Izuku got the feeling was a man of few words but immense knowledge

Finally there was Higari Maijima, who was the guy who designed and built most if not all of the mechanisms around Yuuei.    
  
And aside from the head honchos, there was the research division of things. The leader of botanical research was an enigma, wearing a suit that covered her whole body and a black visor that blocked out her face. She introduced herself as “Thirteen” and nothing else. But she seemed nice, so he couldn’t say anything about it. And soon after, she left the meeting, going on some kind of trip out to… somewhere.    
  
And quite possibly the most confusing researcher was the lead Ecological Researcher. He was distinctively not human, nor lynian.    
  
“Greetings! I am Nedzu. You might be wondering, Am I a bear, a mouse, or a dog? Care to take a guess?”

Izuku hummed in thought while Kyouka felt put-off by the exceedingly intelligent and conniving glint into his beady black eyes. Izuku snapped his fingers. “None of those. You’re a Chimera, a mix of lynian and monster. Although I can’t determine what kind of monster you are…” he hummed, trying to examine further. Nedzu seemed delighted by this answer.    
  
“Excellent job Midoriya! Yes, I am a mix of Lynian, and monster. It is quite the long story, but as you can probably guess, I am not a natural occurrence,” he said, gesturing to the surgical looking scar over his eye and odd appearance. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other, so I do hope you continue to exceed my expectations!” the chimera squeaked.   
  
Izuku nodded, making a mental note to find out what exactly Nedzu was later.    
  
Next up on the list was the Second Fleet master. He was a tall, built man who had vibrant pink hair. He introduced himself as Hatsume, because he had a daughter that preferred to go by Mei and it’d be confusing distinguishing between the two Hatsumes in conversation. 

Then, there were two that weren’t the leaders of anything in particular but were on the council anyways. There was an old hunter in battered, worn and slightly outdated Nargacuga armor, and behind the mask were piercing red eyes. He had scraggly, black-slightly-greying hair that grew past his shoulders, and a sharp, imposing nargacuga longsword sat propped up next to him. The scarf around his neck that comes with some Nargacuga sets was much longer than normal as well. He introduced himself as Shouta Aizawa, but everyone calls him Sensei, or Aizawa-Sensei.    
  
Once introductions were over and everyone knew each other to a degree, Sir turned his focus once more on the Wyverian across from him. “Midoriya, I know you’ve just gotten back from the infirmary, but I’ve got a mission for you to do. You may have had an impressive track record back home, but none of that matters here. This is the New World, and we operate by a new set of rules. I suggest you get used to them. Understood?” he didn’t ask as much as he commanded him to understand. Izuku nodded, standing at attention. “Yes Sir.”    
  
Sir nodded, then slid a file towards Kyouka. “Good. Now, ever since Zorah made landfall, it has thrown the ecosystem here on it’s head; as is usually the case with the Elder Crossing. Ever since then, two problematic species have been riled up and disrupting any kind of research we could be doing, namely the Jagras and Kestodon. They’re becoming a nuisance, invading parts of other monster’s territories, attacking researchers, and reducing local species numbers to dangerously low levels. You need to go and fix that by culling their numbers and shoving them back into place until they calm down,” Sir commanded. The two nodded in understanding. 

“Good. Now, if there’s nothing else to add here, this meeting is over. Dismissed!” He said, waving them off. Everyone nodded, and returned to their normal place of work. The hunter-handler dynamic duo went up to the canteen, meeting the rather large felyne that ran the place there, named Lunch Rush.   
  
After having an absolutely lovely meal, courtesy of Lunch Rush and his helper felynes, Izuku walked up to Kyouka, sitting next to her. “So, you got the quest papers?” he asked, to which she nodded, pulling up her book and flipping through until she found it. “Yeah, here it is.  _ Jagras of the Ancient Forest _ . Great name, eh?”   
  
Izuku shrugged. “Well, it’s a start,” he hummed, signing his name onto the paper. “So, through your information gathering group of handlers, what will the others be doing?” he asked, referring to his squadmates. Kyouka hummed in thought. “Well, Shouto is out taking care of a vespoid infestation, Uraraka isn’t hunting right now, she’s helping move supplies on the backlines, Iida is out on an escort mission with a couple of scholars to see the immediate impact of the Elder Crossing, and the rest are helping out around Yuuei,” she listed off.   
  
Izuku nodded. “Alright, just wanted to make sure my friends were doing good. Well,” he said, putting his hands on his knees and standing up ,adjusting the iron hammer on his back. “Let’s hop to it, as Tsu would say.”   
  
With a few whistles and a wingdrake ride later, they landed in the first forward camp in the Ancient Forest, they landed with style, grace and poise this time instead of face planting in an anthill or something. Kyouka went to the supply box, ensuring that everything was stocked, before handing Izuku his potions and rations, which he put into the almighty hunter’s pouch.    
  
He smiled and waved before walking out to the grand wilds and looking around, map out. He was in area one, and needed to follow the creek north to go to area two where he and Kyouka fought the Jagras last time. So, wading through the creek once more and finding the vines sitting firmly where they were hacked and slashed to the ground, he walked in, Inko hot on his heels, brandishing her acorn shovel/sword. He looked forward and saw a pack of three coming out from a cave directly in front of him, snarling and hissing as they communicated with each other. They mainly focused on food, or something along those lines, so while they were distracted he pulled his hammer off his back, tested its weight in his hand, and charged. The Jagras looked over to see a mallet-wielding Wyverian coming straight for them. Before they knew it, Izuku pulled it back, clenched his butt, and from the depths of his heart bellowed “SMASH!”   
  
Releasing his built up tension, Izuku unleashed a brutal uppercut with his hammer, catching one of the Jagras in the throat and sending it flying up with a strangled gurgle until it flopped back on the ground, suffocating. Izuku pushed past the pit in his stomach from the pain the jagras radiated in it’s last moments, bringing his hammer back down onto a second Jagras’s back while Inko leapt up and slashed down, the tip of her shovel not quite cutting through the scales but doing some heavy damage in it’s own right. The second Jagras fell, half of its body writhing from impact while the other half was paralyzedThe final one jumped back with a panicked growl, then ran off into the cave it had come from.    
  
Izuku wasn’t expecting the Jagras to be a cowardly species, but he decided to not look a gift kelbi in the mouth. He went to the half paralyzed Jagras, kneeling down and taking out his knife, before putting the poor thing out of its misery. He proceeded to carve the remains and cleaned off his hands. There were ore crystals near the cave mouth and a bonepile in a puddle, and he gathered both. It never hurt anyone to do a bit of material gathering, after all.   
  
Once that was done, he followed the Jagras that ran into the cave, seeing a floating ball of… electricity?   
  
“Inko, whaddya make of that?” he inquired, pointing to it. Inko paused and sniffed the air. “Smells like a bug, but a little burnt,” she stated, wrinkling her nose. “Hmm… You think it’ll work like a flash pod?”

  
“Only one way to find out.”   
  
With that goal in mind, he walked forward, before the stench of rotting meat and monster dung hit him like a wave, and the sound of suppressed snarls reached his ears. “Ambush up ahead, be ready to close your eyes,” he advised, slinging the hammer off his back once more. “You got this, Izuku!” Inko cheered, getting herself prepared. Izuku bolted forward, rearing back as he came through the door and swung his hammer, closing his eyes. “Now, Inko!” he shouted. Then, his hammer disrupted the small swarm of Flashflies, which exploded in a burst of light as a defense mechanism. A small tingle of electricity ran through his body, starting from his hands traveling to his feet, probably from the arcs the swarm was making. His eyelids only just protected him from being blind, seeing a muted red, before the flash vanished and he opened his eyes.

All around him, Jagras lay thrashing about from the bright assault on their poor, poor monster eyes. All around him, he heard the panicked and confused yelps of a typical blinded monster. He tensed his arm and charged to the largest cluster of them, then proceeded to swing his hammer in a wide arc, going all the way around him once, twice, three times, ending with another uppercut that caught some poor overgrown iguana in the side. Monster bones cracked, hammers pounded, and shovels slashed, and in a matter of seconds, the pack was dead at their feet.

He took in a deep, steadying breath, clearing away the uneasy feeling bubbling up in his throat now that the action and adrenaline of combat passed. “Sometimes I hate my magic…” he mumbled, going to carve the large number of carcasses around him Inko put a comforting paw on his thigh, meowing in sympathy.    
  
When a Wyverian is born, they inherit either innate magic or a mutated magic from their parents. Izuku’s magic came in the form of a mutation that gave him an empathic bond to the various living things around him monsters, humans and Wyverians alike. It was a powerful, but dangerous ability that allowed him to feel  _ all _ the emotions of those around him.

Izuku could share in his allies’ joy and celebration as well as he could suffer the panicked fear of a beast dying by his own hand. In lesser Wyverians, this magic would surely prohibit them from hunting, easily overwhelmed by the constant sense of fear, pain and desperation they were sure to feel during a successful hunt. Izuku however, always found the strength to go further beyond his own limits, driven by his extreme desire to be a great hunter like his father. Years of training and discipline had given him the ability to turn his empathy to his benefit rather than his detriment.

  
Back in the old world, he was known as a Rider as well as a Hunter, one who bonded with a monster and used it for combat, travel, and utilty. Sadly, he was not allowed to bring his mount to the New World, but he hoped to obtain one soon. 

He walked out of the cave, pulled back his slinger, and put in a flare. Not a red SOS flare, but a green flare that signaled the need for pick-up. A wingdrake came soon, and he rendezvoused with Kyouka and headed back to base.    
  
And it is with that that our dear hunter walks back into Yuuei with a bit more jingle in his coin purse, and meets up with the few friends who were helping out around base, letting them get more accustomed to Kyouka and also making sure that they’re adjusting to the new world well.   
  
The next quest went pretty much the same, with Mirio tagging along to watch because he could. He went out, killed a few Kestodon, and carved them for parts. You know, the average hunter's life. That is, until the end.

He had just met back up with Mirio, and they chatted about this and that, until Mirio held up a hand. “Sorry to interrupt Midoriya, but there’s something wrong. Look at those Kestodon,” he said, pointing to a trio of one male and two females, who were running and bellowing, looking behind them the whole way. “They’re running, but from what is always the question” Mirio pondered, guiding them both behind a tree to watch.    
  
Lo and behold, out from the bushes came a Great Jagras, it’s fanged maw wide open as it bit into the back of the male Kestodon and threw it up and then onto the ground. It was dead before it hit the rocks.

The two females bellowed and ran the other way, but the Great Jagras walked to the head of the dead male, opened it’s maw like a snake, and wormed the carcass into its mouth. Izuku watched in morbid fascination as it reared onto its hind legs, letting gravity help it devour the Kestodon whole. It’s stomach expanded to massive proportions, and Izuku watched as it waddled away, fat and happy, into the dense forest ahead, its engorged belly scuffing up the patches of soft dirt here it trod.    
  
Mirio cursed. “Damn, what a headache. As if having the normal Jagras attacking researchers, this one will be a way bigger headache. I am NOT looking forward to writing ‘Researcher swallowed whole’ in my mission report. Let’s get rid of it quickly, a super agitated Great Jagras is no fun for anyone.” 

“Yeah, I’d imagine so. The gate’s right here, go get a team ready to collect a large monster and I’ll head over to Kyouka to inform her we’re staying longer,” Izuku huffed, looking to the jungle where the Great Jagras had waddled off to. Mirio nodded, giving him a salute. “Good luck, Midoriya. Don’t get eaten.”   
  
“I assure you, I’ll come back whole,” Izuku replied, jogging back to the camp.

“Kyouka!” He called out, causing the handler to peek her head out of the tent. “You done with the quest?” 

“Technically, but there’s an angry Great Jagras, so Mirio asked us to take care of it. Figured you’d wanna know.”   
  
“Well, you were right, I would like to know that. Go on Green, hunt your big monsters, I’ll still be here,” she said with a smirk, waving him off.   
  
He smirked as well, going back out to the entrance, but before he left the clearing he paused and turned around. “So… I’m ‘Green’ to you now, hmm?” He called back, and watched as she abruptly froze ,seeing her blush from where he was standing. He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of a pet name for you too,” he said, barely dodging the rock thrown at him from a very embarrassed Kyouka. 

“Alright, I probably deserved that,” he said, heading deeper into the forest.

\-----------------------

Kyouka was very… warm. It was almost pleasant, but that combined with the sweltering jungle heat and humidity she felt unbearable. “Stupid Wyverian, tryna get a rise out of me…” she muttered, looking at the random rock she threw at him. “But I kinda feel bad for trying to brain him…” 

She sighed. “Stupid, good-looking smooth-talking hunter!” she yelled, chucking another rock. 

“Why’s he so damn good!?”

However, despite her trying to change her embarrassment into anger, she could never hold it for long. And the warm feeling never left her chest the whole time. 

_ ‘Damn, I’ve really got it bad, huh? Wonder what Hakagure would say…’ _

She shuddered. 

_ ‘Yeah, scratch that. Hakagure would NOT help in this situation.’ _

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, before looking back to what Izuku had said before left. 

“Wonder what he’s thinking of for me..?” she wistfully asked to the air.

\-------------------------------------------

_ ‘I am so fucked!’ _ Izuku thought as he tried to clear his vision. During the fight, a few extra Jagras distracted him enough to the point he got smacked headfirst into a cave wall by the big man, as it were. His head was ringing, his sight was blurry, and he currently couldn’t tell the difference between a normal Jagras and the Great Jagras.

A familiar voice sounded like it was shouting, which only served to make him see stars. It sounded so familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. That was, until he felt a furry cannonball slam into his side as cold stream water splashed him in the face, thrusting him out of his stupor and back into the perils of reality.

He did a quick status check. He was only temporarily dazed, none of the normal effects of a concussion, his armorskin made sure of that, but he was still seeing slightly blurry, so a bit more water and a slap to the cheek set him straight. The Great Jagras had just finished its charge destined for him, if the scuffed up dirt and rocks were any indication, and the fat lizard was turning around for another go. 

“Wait… Rocks!” he exclaimed, seeing a bunch of boulders suspended by thin, frail looking vines. He scurried back, grabbing a scatternut among the foliage, and shouting in Wyverian back to the Great Jagras. 

Usually, large monsters had much higher intelligence than small ones, and they tended to ‘speak’ more fluently. This also meant that words affect them more, if one knew how to speak to them. 

Thus, Izuku did the only thing he could think of at the moment to goad the Great Jagras to charge recklessly again.

He taunted it.

_ “Hey! Does your third chin have it’s own ecosystem, you fat piece of shit!?” he shouted in what was meant to be Wyverian, but came out as near-perfect imitations of the Jagras’s snarls. _

The Great Jagras looked affronted, as one very well should have in this situation _.  _ **_“The hell’d you just say to me, snack-size?”_ ** it growled out, and Izuku could see small puffs of steam coming out of it’s nostrils as he felt it’s anger skyrocketing. It only needed a tiny bit more of a push.

Using the arm with his slinger on it, he made the classic ‘come closer’ gesture, angling his arm up at the end.  _ “Why don’t you come here and find out?” _ was his response. The Great Jagras, as predicted, didn’t take kindly to this. 

**_“Why you LITTLE..! I’M GONNA EAT YOU ALIVE!!!”_ ** it bellowed, charging with reckless abandon. Izuku smirked and fired his slinger as it charged towards him. The world started to slow.

There was the Great Jagras, charging at him, mouth wide open and head turned almost sideways to ensure the greatest chance of killing him with its rows of snake-like fangs. The vines above supporting the rocks snapped as the scatternut exploded like spread ammo, which caused the other vines to snap as their last legs of support were taken out from under them. Then there was Izuku himself, white-knuckling his hammer’s handle and tensing his arms and legs.

Then the world came back, and the Great Jagras’s angered bellows were replaced with pained shouts and the great clatter of over three tons of individually weak but heavy rocks cracking right over his head and body. 

And the second there was no more danger of being crushed, Izuku pounced, charging through the dust and pulling his hammer back. _ “Sorry in advance!” _ he shouted, swinging his hammer five times. 

His starting swing caught the Jagras on the chin.

His return swing smashed onto the top of its head.

His overhead smash caught it in the side of the face, and another one followed to the nose, before he grabbed the end of the hammer like a golf club and swung it all the way around. 

“SMAAAAAASH!” echoed in the cave they fought in, met by the gruesome yet satisfying  _ crunch  _ of bone giving way to iron and steel. The Great Jagras had just started to get up before the final swing, and it stumbled away, bleeding from split scales and torn open wounds as it’s jaw hung limply below it’s mouth.

**_“AHHHHHH! ‘HAT ‘HE HELL ‘ID YOU DO TA ME YA BRAT!?!”_ ** it snarled through its broken, mangled mess of teeth and tongue.    
  
_ “I said sorry.” _ he stated matter-of-factly.

This only served to make the Great Jagras even angrier.

\----------------------------------

The battle continued in this way for some time. Inko and Izuku would bait the Jagras into attacking recklessly and waited for it to trip up, and became extremely aggressive when the opportunity presented itself.

After three separate battles in different areas that the Jagras ran to, it spit up half digested food which overwhelmed Izuku’s senses and limped off. Inko growled, but helped Izuku to a nearby stream to get the offending goop off before something caught its scent. 

“Where is it?” Izuku asked, plucking a herb and sniffing it up to get the awful memory of the smell out of his nostrils, sighing at the pleasant herbal aroma. Inko pointed her acorn spade towards a cave entrance. “It’s purr-obably off to get in its den. It was limping when it retreated.”

Izuku smirked, mashing the new herb into a potion since he had time. “Do we have any trap tools?” He asked, having spotted a few interesting items as he chased the giant iguana halfway across the forest. 

‘A thunderbug, a few yellow mushrooms that made his hands feel tingly, and a light blue herb that made him drowsy from just smelling it.’ Inko thought. 

“Not right meow, but there might be a spare trap at camp,” she mused. Izuku nodded. 

“I’m gonna make some more stuff then go scout the den out, you go get Kyou and see if she has anything.” he said, pulling out the items in question along with his mortar and pestle. Inko hummed in affirmation, bounding off in a felyne sprint back towards camp. With a nice supply of water nearby, he began crafting once again.

“Let’s see here.. Parashroom goes with Sleep Herb, put the mixture into a phial, shake it thoroughly…” He said, pouring a thin, purple-ish liquid into a glass phial and shaking it for roughly thirty seconds, the shaking having the odd effect of heating it up until there was a thick, purple fog in the bottle. He made another, and moved on to making a few more items, like Mega Potions, before getting up again and walking to the den. 

The den, surprisingly, had very little activity going on, and it was easy to sneak in. The Great Jagras, apparently, had sent all its underlings to hunt for him until he got back on his feet, thus leaving the den empty. He walked back into the cave mouth, and waited for Inko. 

His palico returned a few minutes later, with what looked like a hole-filled metal canister strapped to her back. She bounded up to him. “How’s it looking like in there, Izu?” She hissed out quietly. Izuku looked back, straining his ears for movement. “Still no smaller Jagras, and the big one’s still sleeping. Let’s get ourselves a Great Jagras.” 

He shoved the thunderbug into the canister, turned a few dials and got a switch ready before walking in with his hunting partner. They crept in carefully, making sure to avoid loose piles of rocks and weak bones left from cleaned carcasses. The Great Jagras was sleeping soundly, unaware of the two others in his cave, before Izuku set the trap down, holding two tranquilizer bombs.

With the push of a button, the thunderbug inside was compressed and the mechanisms inside amplified the electricity, making arcs shoot out towards the monster. The electrical current coursed through the Great Jagras’s body, paralyzing it, while Izuku and Inko took a deep breath. Izuku threw down both of the Phials, releasing a cloud of tranquilizing gas that the Great Jagras was forced to breathe in erratically, and after a few seconds, it stopped trying to pull away, and it fell, as the shock trap automatically lowered it’s voltage to keep from frying the beast alive.

Izuku sighed, relieved he didn’t have to feel the emotions of a dying large monster, and walked out. Trapping was the one thing that kept him going most of the time, he never killed large monsters unnecessarily unless he had to. Plus, he got better rewards for captures, so win-win for everyone.

Well, except monsters. But even then, he heard they got healed and eventually released back into the wild most times in the New World, so he had nothing to worry about.   
  
Once outside the cave system, he looked for a clear spot in the canopy above and loaded a green flare used for pickup of a captured monster. Afterwards, he whistled for a wingdrake transport, which came after half a minute, and was glad to see Kyouka riding one towards him as well. He asked his wingdrake to go over and fly next to Kyouka’s wingdrake, which it happily complied with.

And so it was that a Human, a Wyverian and Felyne walked into a bar- er, Yuuei, and celebrated their first successful hunt of the new world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big ol' thank you to Gotsh0cks from Epsi's Discord for helping me out on this.


	4. Things Aren't Adding Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mystery, a threat, and a lesson. Care to guess what's about to happen next?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to my boi GotSh0cks for helping me out and going through hell to get my stuff beta read.

Nearly everyone in Astera was excited about the new Wyverian hunter that had captured the Great Jagras. Left unchecked, the gluttonous lizard would've surely eaten at least one fresh hunter, nothing left of them but a next of kin letter and an empty casket.  Sure, Jagras may be weak,  but still plenty threatening for unprepared civilians and unescorted researchers.

So, needless to say, it was a day well spent eating good food. Izuku had chosen the Chef’s Choice’ platter, and received a wonderful serving of some of the best white liver he’d ever had the pleasure of eating, with a lovely set of diced wyvern, aptonoth meat and some assorted appetizers and liquors. The celebration was even joined by the Bakusquad, with its leader joining in reluctantly, and Izuku felt that Bakugo felt inferior for not getting the first big hunt of the Fifth Fleet. So, with that in mind, Bakugou went on a quest to get rid of that shared feeling by hunting and saying he’d get his chance to shine soon.

He’d soon find out how right he was.

Izuku had been attending the attempted ‘ _ rehabilitation’ _ of the Great Jagras when it happened. Strange noises in the forest during patrols, a foreboding sense of dread that made him lightheaded, and local wildlife acting oddly. The scholars concluded that the events happening now were after-effects of such a large and powerful elder like Zorah Magdaros crossing over to the New World.

Izuku, however, couldn’t fully agree. He  _ wanted _ to believe it was Zorah, but there was a presence he couldn’t quite discern. It felt far away, but even then…

Whatever the unknown presence was, it was extremely powerful. Powerful enough to broadcast its aura across the vast distance was between them, possibly even further. And, despite him obviously feeling it, he couldn’t report more than theories to the scholars without solid evidence or doing a thorough investigation. 

And then there was this foreboding sense of… wrongness. Something was happening with the appearance of Zorah, more than just upsetting the ecosystem. It felt… chaotic. Like the New World was slowly descending into disorder, unbalanced in a way that it can’t recover.  Worst of all however was the constant icy chill of dread that weighed heavily on Izuku's weary mind.

The alien nature of the presence confused Izuku. Was it an elder dragon? Was it even a monster? Was it a person? Whatever it was, Izuku took a small solace that it was faint, and to the best of his knowledge, still far, far away from Yuuei. He still had a job to do, and strange presence or no, he did what he always did and pressed forward.

His friends knew  _ something _ was wrong with the green haired empath but collectively agreed it'd be difficult for them to understand. Izuku often worked late into the evenings subsisting only on energy drinks and Lunch Rush's food attempting to solve a puzzle only he knew of. His teammates helped him the only way they could think of, being happy and offering distractions when they could, hoping Izuku would feel their own joy if he couldn't feel his own.

After the Great Jagras quest, Izuku, his squad, and the Bakusquad got permission to go on expeditions into the Ancient Forest, so he would brainstorm with Nedzu for a bit, grab one of his team, and head out to search. Today was no different.

And it was paying off, slowly. Unidentified monster traces, odd sounds and shapes spotted by him and other hunters, and various other strange phenomena. 

So, there he was, walking through the jungle with Bakugou, Izuku with his hammer and Bakugou having a Heavy Bowgun strapped onto his back, when they had noticed something very off about the jungle.   
  
Bakugou broke the silence first, Izuku still trying to figure out what he was feeling.. “Oi, Deku.” He stopped, grabbing onto Izuku’s sleeve and tugging him out of his stupor. “Doesn’t this shit sound too quiet for a jungle? Where’s the birds? The bugs? Where the fuck is  _ anything _ ?” he hissed, actually taking care not to raise his voice for once, in case something dangerous was around.

“Yeah, it’s never this quiet. Just this morning there were all kinds of things making noise, but now…” Izuku trailed off, looking around. The wind breezed through the empty forest, rustling the still foliage around them. Bakugou looks around, but can’t smell what Izuku can with his Wyverian nose.

_ Death. _

The scent of pure rot and decay carried on a foul-smelling breeze.

The scent caused him to freeze and tense up, and Bakugou noticed this. 

“Knife ears, what the hell’s wrong here?” Katsuki hissed. 

“There’s something here. Kacchan… Something  _ bad…”  _ He stressed, looking around and reaching back for his hammer just in case. Katsuki got the message and started scanning the jungle around them. “Deku, let's look further in. Might find some clues,” he growled out, reaching back and unfolding his bowgun out fully, nodding. “I’ll cover you.”   
  
Izuku steeled his nerves and nodded, and they slowly made their way deeper into the forest. Using the feeling’s presence like a guide, they continued until even Katsuki could smell the rot on the wind.  The smell of rot suddenly gave way to an abhorrent mixture of death, rot and the unmistakable brimstone and sulfur of Zorah Magdaros. Izuku doubled over, clasping his hands at his mouth, only barely containing his gag reflex.  Izuku put on a special mask soaked in potions and powdered with nullberries to keep him standing before heading any deeper.  They were wading through a small river when Izuku thought he heard signs of the only significant life left in the jungle besides himself and Bakugo.

“Up ahead, I hear something. Sounds like a large monster. And the elder presence is stronger than ever here. Why would a monster stay near an elder when everything else ran away?”

He slowly devolved into confused, silent muttering as Katsuki snapped him out of it by shoving him with his gun. “Shut the fuck up Deku. Do first, think later. Let’s see what’s up ahead,” Katsuki choked out among the almost purple, dusty air around them that held the deepest stench of rot either had ever had the displeasure of smelling.   
  
They came upon a clearing to find an odd sight. 

A massive boulder of volcanic rock and ever-glowing magma greeted their sight, with smoke coming out of small cracks. Izuku heard a growl, and spotted a large monster circling the volcanic mass, And the monster in question was a Pukei-Pukei if Izuku remembered right, but they were always said to be scared by monsters more powerful than them. It was a bird wyvern. Zorah was an elder. So why was it still here?   
  
“Kacchan, stay back. Something’s up, and I wanna hear what that Pukei-Pukei is thinking.”   
  
Katsuki grunted in agreement, laying in the grass and pointing his bowgun forward, cluster bombs long since loaded in the chamber. “Be careful for Star’s sake,” he growled as Izuku crept forward.

As he did, even more things began to feel intensely wrong. The Pukei-Pukei didn’t  _ feel  _ like a Pukei-Pukei. It gave him an immense amount of mixed signals. It looked different visually as well. The eyes were smaller, not as reptilian. It’s legs had the wrong scales. It’s tail looked like a blade. 

It had ears, he noticed. Hidden among the feathers. 

As he neared it, It sounded like it was talking to... itself? 

**_“Hrrrg… I’ll kill them!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“No! I can’t do that!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“Bullshit, I can take them all myself!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“What about the offer!?”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“That nonsense? Hah! I could take them all on by myself!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“No, we have to think logically about this!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“So, you ARE all for this plan!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“No! I… I just think if we’re gonna do this, we live after.”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“Hmph, fiiine. Guess I gotta deal with more of that purple shit when we meet him again...”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_  
_ ** Izuku was very confused. Why did this monster have multiple personalities? Why did it look mismatched?

During his intense thought process, he had the worst luck ever as the very small surface area of his digitigrade foot landed directly on a tree branch which broke with a loud  _ snap _ . 

Immediately, the unknown monster snapped its head right where Izuku once stood. He sensed its aura flare oddly before witnessing something he never thought he’d see.

The monster, now decisively  _ not _ a Pukei-Pukei, changed colors, going from a Pukei’s green and purple highlights to deep red with fiery orange highlights as he heard a cough. Suddenly, there was a cloud of dense smog that was so heavily laced with the scent of gunpowder and burnt hair it actually managed to drown out the scent of death in the air. 

Blastblight.

**_“Who’s there? I’ll rip you to shreds!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“I don’t wanna fight you!”_ **

Izuku saw Katsuki ready to fire and frantically waved his arms to call him off, which he did reluctantly. The tail of the beast now had some kind of clear fluid dripping off it that smelled like burnt sugar instead of the trickle of venomous fluid.Its tail blade suddenly slashed through a tree.    
  


**_“I will find you!”_ **

**_“Huh, are they gone already?”_ **

After a few aggressive sniffs and more shouting, the monster turned back to the massive piece of volcanic slag. 

**_“Hrrrg… Dammit! This is all your fault, cloggin’ up my nose!”_ **

**_“Wow, for once we agree on something.”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_“Shut up!”_ **

With another color change, the green returned, and the monster hurled a glob of acid onto the rock before grumbling and flying away.

After a minute of silence, both hunters got up. Katsuki looked  50% confused, 50% worried, 100% angry.

“Dammit! Deku! What the actual  _ fuck  _ was that! Did you fuckin’ see that!?” he shouted, unable to really put anything but curse words to what he had just bore witness to.   
  
“Oh I saw it. I told you something was wrong, this,” he said, gesturing to the somewhat thinner purple mist, slag, and mixture of fluids from the monster, “just proves it. We need to get this to the top brass. Now. Like, right now.,” he urged, looking at the collected fog. He pulled out a number of sample tubes, carefully gathering poison, blast fluid, magma rock, and dense mist, sealing them all tightly. Bakugo, catching on, did the same. 

During this time, they found even more disconcerting signs. More elder tracks, but distinctly  _ not from  _ Zorah Magdaros. It looked like a tornado had been on only one spot in the dirt, and Izuku could think of only one elder dragon that could possibly make tracks like that. 

“That’s definitely Kushala Daora tracks, but something’s off about it. I can’t tell what though. And god knows what this purple stuff is, but we’re both going to the infirmary to make sure it isn’t lethal.”   
  
Katsuki huffed. “Yeah yeah, I know.”    
  
After gathering a few samples, they quickly made their way out of the smog and called some wingdrakes, flying off to Yuuei. They both stopped by the infirmary and received a clean bill of health, but were told to take it easy just in case. Katsuki went to inform his squad of what was happening. Meanwhile, Izuku grabbed Kyouka and they both marched up to Sir.    
  


“Hmm..? Midoriya? What’s wrong, you look pretty grave there,” Mirio mused from his side of the table. Izuku sighed, and pulled out his satchel that held all the evidence he and Katsuki gathered. 

“Sir. We have a problem,” he stated grimly. He gestured to all the sample tubes. “Me and Bakugou Katsuki were on an expedition in the Ancient Forest and we found a multitude of strange tracks, including clues about Zorah Magdaros we believe, and… some kind of unknown monster.”   
  
Everyone’s eyes widened while Izuku sorted out the tubes into piles and groups. “This pile is what we believe are Kushala Daora tracks, this is the Zorah pile, these tubes here are filled with the smoke, and these are samples from the mystery monster.” He held a tube up and popped it open.   
  
Immediately, the scent of burnt sugar permeated the air, and Mirio took one whiff and reeled. “That’s… some potent blastblight…” he stated. Izuku scoffed. “Imagine how I feel, it smells like when my Dad tried baking a cake.” Mirio winced at that and Nejire sucked air through her teeth, while Izuku’s ears picked up on Amajiki mumbling “Damn, tell us how you really feel…”   
  
Sir sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Whatever Hizashi’s cooking skill, we need to get back on-”

Just then, Aizawa, who had been absent, rushed up to the table with his hand on his longsword. “We have a problem,” Sir sighed heavily as problems new and old rapidly piled on . Aizawa continued, “A monster came by and burned down the front gate. We weren’t able to get too good of a look at it, but those on the scene say it was either a Rathalos or Rathian.”

Sir’s face hardened, and he got a glint in his eye. “Show me,” he commanded, leaving no room for dissent.   
  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------   
  
At the ruins of the front gate, there was a grim silence. The hunters were on edge, the researchers were confused, and the gate was reduced to a pile of ashes and embers. The Head Honchos were watching over everything, and Izuku was with Aizawa while they investigated the scene. 

“What do you make of this, Midoriya?” Aizawa asked as he collected a handful of the ashes, watching them fly off as dust in the light breeze. Izuku hummed. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. If it were a normal Rath, the fire shouldn’t be hot enough to disintegrate the wood entirely, only char it. So either there was some other unknown factor…” he trailed off, letting Aizawa pick up the pieces himself. Aizawa turned to him with grim realization in his tired red eyes. “Or we have some kind of subspecies on our hands.”   
  
Izuku nodded. “Yeah, that. And the placement is odd to me. Why only target the front gate? Raths are flying wyverns, it can just go over. This wasn’t clearing an obstacle…” His face fell as another heavy realization hit him.   
  
_ “It was a message.” _   
  
Aizawa seemed shocked by this as well, but Izuku was probably the only one who knew how monsters truly thought, because he could actually talk to them. But there were other questions as to what, exactly, it would gain from doing such a thing. Izuku sensed his confusion.    
  
“You’re thinking about why it’d send a message, aren’t you?” Izuku asked. Aizawa sighed. “Quit sensing my emotions.” 

“I really can’t, so you’ll have to deal with it.”

“Damn it… But yeah, what would a monster gain from doing this?” he asked the green haired hunter. Izuku seemed to be deep in thought. “The only reason I could think of that won’t sound absolutely insane is simple. Raths are territorial, Rathaloses especially, so maybe it believes us to be invaders or competition and is trying to assert dominance. However, there’s also the possibility that…” Izuku devolved into another one of his infamous mutter storms as he tried to piece together a completely white puzzle. Aizawa flicked his scarf out at him, lightly whipping his cheek with it. Izuku snapped up in confusion as Aizawa pulled the scarf back in one motion and fluidly wrapped it around his neck again. “You were muttering,” was all the scruffy hunter had to say.    
  
“Oh, uh, thanks. Also, we’re gonna have a chat about how you did that, but later.”   
  
“Of course…”

“But what I was saying was… Either it’s treating this as a territorial dispute, or it’s cunning and wants to spread fear around. It’s a warning, but I don’t know what for. Maybe it wanted to show it had the power to get past our defenses?” 

“So you’re suggesting a  _ monster  _ is capable of using fear tactics?”   
  
“All monsters are, to a degree. It’s why monsters like, say, an Anjanath will roar and act all big and bad. It has its established role in the ecosystem and will do everything it can to retain that spot, and if something starts acting in a way it deems out of line, it goes and it bullies it back into submission or fights it until either it dies or the enemy does. But this is not your typical ‘survival of the fittest mentality’, or ‘do what you need to survive’ type of fear tactic. There was no need for it to assault the base in such a way. If it wanted to put us in our place, it would’ve targeted the main compound, or even just the drawbridge, not the gate a hundred meters from it where no one will directly be targeted. And even if it did, it would’ve waited for someone to come challenge it, not retreat right after.”   
  
Aizawa held up a hand. “So, basically, you’re saying that it’s showing us it can easily breeze past our defenses for whatever it wants without a single problem?” the tired man asked with his eyes wide open for possibly the first time in 30 years.

Izuku shrugged, sticking his finger into a pile of ash and pulling it out to memorize the scent, just in case. “I’m not saying  _ anything _ , yet. I’m trying to theorize why it would do this, and these are the only two options that I can think of that’d make sense.”   
  
“Shit… Either way, it doesn’t look good,” Aizawa grimaced, looking to the skies. He spotted a dark blob moving, covering the stars where it went in the sky, and Aizawa realized it had the general shape of either a Rathalos or a Rathian, but before he could say as much, he got a tap to the shoulder. It was Nedzu, riding on the shoulder of Thirteen. 

“Nedzu, sir…” Aizawa grumbled out in greeting, turning to try and spot the blob again, but to no avail. There was nothing but the stars in the sky and the canopy of the trees now. Izuku did a shallow bow, more out of formality than anything, but the chimera still smiled. “Hello Nedzu, what brings you to our lovely abode?” Izuku asked with a posh accent and a sarcastic grin. “I’m afraid you came at a bad time, see, there’s been a lot of dust lately.” Izuku chuckled as he gestured to the pile of ashes. 

Aizawa stared at him incredulously, his left eye twitching in either annoyance or suppressed humor, Izuku couldn’t tell with his mask up. Thirteen giggled, and Nedzu smiled wider. “Ah, I see. Well, if you don’t mind telling me, what might have brought this mess upon our front door?” The chimera gestured towards the pile of ashes with his paw as he addressed Izuku. 

Izuku was about to answer with another round of unnecessarily formal words and more bad accents but Aizawa’s scarf struck him across the cheek again. “Stop that, Problem Child,” Aizawa grunted at the boy.

“It’s my coping mechanism!” Izuku retorted.   
  
“Don’t care. Get to reporting. I’ve got other teams to check on,” the old hunter drawled before turning on his heels and walking away, leaning up against a boulder and chatting with another elder of the Commission, Sekijiro Kan, if he remembered right. He handled the training of new hunters so they got accustomed to the New World if they were lacking or just inexperienced.    
  
“Well then. I guess I have to quit beating around the bush then...” Izuku muttered. He cleared his throat before clapping his hands.

“So! Let us begin, Nedzu!”   
  
\-------------------------------------------------------------   
  
One explanation and a huge amount of brainstorming by Izuku and Nedzu later, they concluded that this was, in fact, a warning. A territorial dispute was ruled out due to the fact that it likely would’ve challenged them to a fight to see who deserved control of the area. The only plausible answer left was that it was planning something, and the gate was a warning. A threat. A message that said ‘Be afraid’ in ashes and ruin. 

It it was indeed a threat, it was working. Once news of the gate was out and people saw the council members and others meeting and speaking in urgent yet hushed tones, it made people afraid. You’d catch people looking to the skies every time a sail fluttered loudly. People were heading out on simple missions with a full team. Researchers worked to beef up their escorts. 

  
  


It had been a week. A week of paranoia. A week of never letting your weapon out of arm’s reach. A week of anticipation. Except, oddly enough, things were actually worryingly calm in the wild. There were hardly any monster attacks. No research caravans ambushed by predators. And, infuriatingly, no more signs of the Mystery Monster, no more purple mist, and no more clues of Zorah. Of course, this was the information kept the tightest under wraps, because if word got out that there were strange monsters running around during this time of panic, it’d just complicate things further.

There were other traces though. Traces of monsters that were unidentifiable, too faded, or simply too random to conclude anything. But Nedzu and Izuku studied them and found worrying results. Traces reminiscent of Old World monsters never seen in the fifty years the Research Commission had been here until one day, traces just started popping up.    
  
The worst part was that there was always something  _ wrong  _ about all the new tracks. So, these mystery tracks were explained as random tracks left by other various standard monsters while the files were secreted away for further analysis. Of course, only The Council and the teams of two people, namely Izuku and Katsuki, were kept up to date because they were directly involved. Otherwise, the general public in Yuuei was kept unaware until they absolutely needed to be informed.

  
  


What was the saying? What you don’t know can’t hurt you?   
  
Except in this case, it  _ very  _ much could. 

Thirteen and the rest of Botanical Research decided to do something about the stress and thick tension in the air. They grabbed the Fifth Fleet and a few others from the Fourth to go do some training out in the Ancient Forest on how to respond to S.O.S. signals and other rescue procedures, and with the help of Botanical Research, the proper steps on how to care for the wounded. A much calmer training regiment of proper crafting to get their minds off of the week old threat and calm them down by putting the hunters in their element without the stress of monster battles.   
  
And so, when the sun rose on the New World, the Dekusquad was in their barracks, getting ready for the day-long lesson. 

Ochako cheered, “I can’t believe it! We're going out on a huge trip with all our crew AND we get to learn from THIRTEEN!” the smile she had on lit up the room, and even the minimally expressive Todoroki and Hitoshi cracked a smile. 

  
Jirou looked confused as she pulled on her handler top and got to work on the little cape or shawl or whatever it was because it just  _ wouldn’t sit right goddamnit. _ “What- Ugh, someone help please, I don’t know how I did it last time…” Izuku finished putting on his leather armor, and walked up behind Kyouka, his presence making her a blushing mess and his hands sent shivers up her spine. She tried to pretend everything was fine though, shooting death glares at Hitoshi who had started wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“A-anyway, uh… Oh yeah, Ochako, what’s up with your obsession with Thirteen?” She asked. Ochako looked over from her spot on the bunk as she strapped up her thigh high boots. “Huh..? OH! Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re new, you just meld so well into the team!”   
  
Kyouka was stunned at the compliment. Ochako took her silence as her cue to continue.”So, all the others know, I wanted to be a support hunter. You know, mainly doing rescue and healing. Well, that’s because Thirteen was from my town! She was actually the one who taught a lot of the younger hunter classes how to create potions, antidotes and all that other stuff. And then they’d go out and save some hunter from being mauled and all that and then get right back to teaching us. They were a support hunter. Of course, I think they are more focused on research and all that, but they are my idol. My  _ hero _ . But, uh, I’m not only a support hunter anymore. It’s a long story and I’m sure the boys wouldn’t like me embarrassing them right now.”   
  
Kyouka noticed three different reactions. Hitoshi scoffed, Iida sighed like a disappointed parent, and Izuku chuckled nervously.

Filing the potential blackmail story away for later, Iida began his robotic movements and loud yelling. “Come! We must not dally and be late for this expedition!” He said, grabbing his dual blades and marching out. The rest of the squad knew he was right, so they hurried along and grabbed their weapons as well before following him out.

Once in the Tradeyard, Izuku looked out across a sea of fresh hunters. His friends, his comrades. All of them buzzing with anticipation to go out and do something in the New World. His ears picked up on Thirteen talking with Sir.

“-Since we’re going to be practicing S.O.S. responses and we have a whole fleet’s worth of eager hunters, if you see a flare don’t waste resources going for it. The forest is calm right now, so what better time?”   
  


Izuku heard Sir sigh. “Alright, but the second anything goes wrong, send someone immediately.”

Thirteen laughed. “You know I would, Sir.”   
  
Izuku was overwhelmed with the collective feelings of excitement radiating from the crowd, and he couldn’t help but crack a smile as well. He spotted Aizawa slink over to the front of the crowd, silent as the dead, and wait for the crowd to die down. However, once he saw they weren’t stopping anytime soon, he loaded something into his slinger and looked at Izuku, motioning to his ears. Izuku got the message and clamped his hands over his ears before Aizawa shot a screamer pod right into the middle of the crowd, sending most into a panic before they quickly shut up. 

Izuku uncovered his ears as AIzawa stared the crowd into submission, his red eyes actually glowing like a Nargacuga, which just added to the intimidation factor. 

“It took you all almost 13 seconds to calm down. That’s unacceptable. If you panic like that when an actual monster attacks, you’d all be dead.”   
  
His cold, judging words sank into the crowd as they quietly murmured among themselves.

AIzawa spoke again, his tired and monotone voice somehow carrying over to all of them.“You’re all heading out to a class with myself, Thirteen, and one other mentor, who will hopefully show up shortly.” Izuku heard him mutter “Big oaf…” under his breath.   
  
As he spoke, a few other researchers pulled up in Aptonoth-drawn carts that could hold two teams of hunters. “Take your set teams or come up with one now and board a cart. We don’t have enough wingdrakes to carry all of you back and forth between Yuuei and the forest, so this will have to do.”   
  
Aizawa, despite wearing a face mask, made them all shiver with the near-maniacal grin he shot towards them. “We’re gonna whip you newbies into shape. Welcome to the New World, it’s time to go Plus Ultra.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, yeah, catch me on Epsi's Discord. I am The_Local_Cryptid but with glitch text. Not too active on there usually but odds are I will engage in conversation if directly pinged.
> 
> https://discord.gg/xV7Td8a

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, yeah, catch me on Epsi's Discord. I am The_Local_Cryptid but with glitch text. Not too active on there usually but odds are I will engage in conversation if directly pinged.
> 
> https://discord.gg/xV7Td8a


End file.
